From the cover of Bonsai No Satori, Chase and Solita Rosade’s new newsletter.

Send us your news
We are happy to post bonsai news from around the world. We get around sixteen thousand visits a month from pretty much everywhere. Some of these just might be interested in what you are doing. Send your info to: wayne@stonelantern.com

Our news (mostly larches)
I’m still digging larches (Larix laricina) and a few Northern white cedars (Thuja occidentalis). A friend of mine has a swampy area on his land that is full of larches. Nothing too old (the swamp was cleared about fifteen years ago), but nevertheless some excellent stuff with great potential that I’ve been planting here and growing on. On an earlier post, I promised that I’d be selling some this year, but now I think I’ll wait another year or two. Some look pretty good, but they grow fast here and will look much better later. No good photos yet, but I’ll post some pretty soon just to whet your appetite.

Big discounts at Stone Lantern
Several people have asked how we can afford to give such large discounts. With books, we are both publishers and distributors, so our costs are pretty low. With tools, we import directly from Japan and China, so the same thing applies. Still, many of our items are discounted to just above our cost. This is good for you and helps to keep the ball rolling here.

One little man made hill that serves as landscaping and as a growing bed for future bonsai.

Coming soon
I’ve started digging some of my field grown stuff and putting them in plastic containers. Soon we’ll start photographing and putting some up for sale.

Larches and some others
More than half of what I’ve been growing are larches that have been collected here in northern Vermont. All have been pruned some. Some has been wired and a few have even been carved. Most are not bonsai pot ready, but all have good potential.

Stone Lantern
When they are ready, I’ll be putting them up here and on Stone Lantern (where you will be able to order them). Speaking of Stone Lantern, check out our latest sale. I’ve been discounting individual items like a madman, with no end in sight (well, not yet anyway).

Fish seaweed is mild and well-balanced for fall fertilizing.

Reduced nitrogen
Horticulturists, bonsai teachers and others have long been advising people to reduce nitrogen fertilizing in late summer and fall. The keyword is “reduce.” Some nitrogen is necessary when you fertilize otherwise the phosphorous, potassium and other nutrients can’t do their job properly.

Fall growing season in mild climates
Here’s what Michael Hagedorn of Crataegus Bonsai has to say about nitrogen and the fall growing season: “We might also begin thinking about fall fertilizing. I think fall fertilizing is more important for bonsai, particularly developed ones, than spring fertilizing. In Japan more fertilizer is sold for bonsai in the fall than in the spring. If you live in the Pacific Northwest or other areas with a long, mild fall, re-fertilizing the trees is very wise as it is as long and nearly as productive a growing season as spring.

Don’t discount at least some nitrogen in the fall…there is a lot of talk out there about cutting out nitrogen in the fall, but if you’ve been fertilizing with nitrogen fertilizers throughout the year the trees will shut down naturally due to shorter day length and cooler temperatures by themselves, regardless of nitrogen. Nitrogen is used in all cell processes; don’t cut it out of your fall fertilizer.”

Cold climates
If you live where winters come on fast and last for a long time, don’t wait a day longer. It’s not too late as roots will continue to grow while the soil still holds some of the summer’s warmth (time is running out for trees in pots, but for field grow trees, roots will continue to grow for a while). I use fish-seaweed fertilizer in early September (I live in northern Vermont). It’s mild and because it’s in liquid form, it goes to work immediately.

Clip and grow
The visible scar is where I cut the tree down to its current size (to about 10″ – 25cm, from about 30″ – 76cm) when it came out of the field the last time. There’s another barely visible scar lower down on the back from the first major cut five years ago. This technique is called clip and grow.

Here’s a cascading juniper that went from a nursery pot into a rock garden two springs ago. It has some interesting deadwood (you can’t see it very well) near its base. It may become a bonsai someday, or it might just stay where it is. That’s a larch upper right, a spruce sticking up in the lower right corner, a quince in the lower left corner and a weeping needle juniper peeking out above. The rocks are home grown Vermont natives.

Late summer early fall
Here in northern Vermont, the next few weeks are good time to move stuff from pots into the ground. You don’t really need to disturb the roots much and the ground stays warm for a while after the air cools, so you can plant fairly late. To play it safe I don’t plant much later than about three weeks before we expect the first hard frost. Some people plant even later. Either way, a thick layer of mulch is a good idea.

A Cole’s prostrate hemlock (Tsuga canadensis ‘Cole’s Prostrate’) that went from nursery container to my back yard and then into this growing pot (it’s now back in the ground, no photo yet). I cut off about 75% of the original. Some of the deadwood is new, but the more faded deadwood on the trunk was already there. Photo by Amy Palmer.

Old Cole’s prostrate hemlocks
A couple years ago I stumbled across eight amazing old Cole’s prostrate hemlocks in nursery pots at Palmer Koelb’s Baker Valley Nursery in New Hampshire (Palmer also owns Shin Boku Nursery). Palmer loves Okatsune tools, so we worked up a trade and I brought them home and stuck them in some landscaped areas around my house.

This little piece of my back yard features another Cole’s prostrate hemlock that hasn’t been dug yet (not quite as juicy as the one above). Meanwhile it looks pretty good as a landscape plant. The others plants are: Golden nugget dwarf barberry (upper left corner); Shimpaku juniper (upper center) Little gem spruce (upper right); A small piece of another shimpaku (peeking in on the right) and a piece of another Cole’s prostrate hemlock (lower right). The weeds in the lower left corner aren’t really there. Photo by Amy Palmer.

From pot to ground to pot to ground
It’s not that unusual to stick nursery stock in the ground to hasten development. What is a little unusual (though not unheard of) is to go from pot to ground to pot and then back into the ground.

Some pretty good reasons
One reason for sticking many of my partially trained trees back into the ground is that I don’t want to be bothered wintering too many trees in pots. We like to get out of Vermont some in the winter, and the risk is high when someone else is looking in on your trees. That, and it’s fun taking trees out of the ground and training them for a while and then putting them back to once again hasten their development.

Another shot of the tree in its bonsai training pot (from Japan). From this angle you can see that it has a future as a full cascade. The little crown at the top needs to develop, so I stuck it back into the ground (more later on this tree). Photo by Amy Palmer.

Most large Trident maples (and some other deciduous trees) are started in the field and developed using the clip and grow technique. The result is usually a heavy trunked tree with gentle curves, often in a more or less S shape. You can see this basic shape in the Trident maple in our previous field growing post. A variation of this S curve also shows up in the pine that is shown in the same post, though it was created by other means (trimming and wiring), as pines and other conifers don’t usually take to the clip and grow technique.

You can see the large scar from the first cut on this powerful old Chinese elm (Ulmus parviflora) . If you follow the trunk up a ways, you can see the change of direction where the second cut took place, though you can’t see a scar from this view. This tree appears in the 1st U.S. National Bonsai Exhibition Album (2008). It was started from a large collected tree in China. The owner/artist is Melvyn Goldstein.

A pretty impressive bonsai with a modified S shape. It’s a Miyajima Japanese-Five Needle Pine (also called Japanese white pine – Pinus parviflora ‘Miyajima’) that was field grown for several years. The artist/owner is Ken Buell. The photo is from the 1st U. S. National Bonsai Exhibition Album.

Here’s the text of an email I received from Eric Killian…
I think bonsai bark has a lot of potential, but I’d love to see more on field growing.  I have about 30-40 trees in the ground now but ground growing is completely new to me.  Should I be giving trucks shape now?  Possibly exaggerating it so in later years it will look like a nice flowing curve?  I want to add character at a young age while avoiding the “S” trees that are mass produced.

… and here’s my original answer:
I understand your desire to see more on field growing and there will be more, but we are trying to cover a wide range of bonsai practice and appreciation, and field growing is just one piece.
It is good to start shaping trunks early while they are flexible. I sometimes use branch benders and sometimes wire (sometimes both). With wire you need to be careful; trunks grow fast in the ground.

S shaped curves:
As you can see from the two photos in this post, S shaped curves can be very pleasing. Still, there’s no doubt that they can also be overused, especially with commercial bonsai.

Exaggerating curves:
Yes. Exaggerate the curves. They will soften as trunks thicken.

Another example of an S shaped curved, albeit, a very soft one. It started as a stump (I imagine from a field) that was then container grown for twenty years. Like the pine above, it’s from the 1st U. S. National Bonsai Exhibition (it won the Yoshi Bonsai Tool Award for the Finest Deciduous Bonsai). The artist/owner is Martin Schmalenberg. The pot is by Nick Lenz. We like this tree so much that this is the second time we’ve featured it in Bonsai Bark.

Visit Field Growing 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5

This Goldflame Japanese Spirea (Spiraea japonica ‘Goldflame’) was originally dug from a  garden in the UK. It was styled by Harry Harrington. You can view it and numerous other noteworthy bonsai at bonsai4me.com.

One reason we’ve been featuring field growing so much is that the US government restrictions make importing quality stock from Asia somewhere between difficult and impossible (Europe is a whole other story – it’s easy for them to import Asian stock – which helps explain some of the differences between European and North American bonsai). This means that if we are going to develop quality bonsai stock in this country, we need to learn how to grow our own.

One of my favorite bonsai sites, bonsai4me.com is from the UK (a great place to grow most temperate zone plants). The following text and the photos above are from this site.

Field Growing Trees For Bonsai

A common misconception amongst newcomers to the art of bonsai is that trees (bonsai) with large, thick trunks must have had decades of training to become the size they are and that a thin-trunked seedling will one day acquire a thick mature trunk even though it is planted in a bonsai pot.

Unfortunately, once a tree is growing in the confines of a small pot, with its roots restricted and upper growth regularly pruned, the trunk and branches of the tree will only thicken very slowly.

Large bonsai with thick trunks are nearly always developed in the ground prior to being planted into a pot; some are purposely field grown, some are collected mature trees.

As a tree develops new growth during the growing season, it lays down new wood to feed and supply its new shoots and leaves. The more new shoots and foliage the tree produces, the more new wood is developed to support this new growth. This new wood grows around the outer ring of the trunk and branches in an almost direct passage from the new shoots, back through the trunk to the root system, gradually increasing the trunk’s diameter. Therefore, the greater the amount of new growth a tree achieves in a season, the greater the increase in the girth of its trunk.

A tree that is allowed unrestricted growth will always thicken faster than a tree that is pruned.

The best way to promote unrestricted growth in any tree or shrub is to plant it into the ground; a large container is an alternative but not equivalent to growing in the ground. (This is chiefly due to the difference in dynamics of soil held within a container and that of a large mass of ground-soil; be wary of planting trees in overly large containers, this can in fact slow growth. See Overpotting).

Field-growing techniques can be used within any area of ground, if an area of land is unavailable to you (as is often the case) trees can be grown on (and enjoyed) in the garden amongst ordinary garden schemes, as ‘temporary’ 5-10 year hedges or as ‘temporary’ garden specimens. It is also possible with a little work to build raised beds specifically for the purpose of field growing; raised beds can be walled with brick or wooden planks and filled with good quality soil.

Any tree/shrub species can be used for field growing as long as it is hardy in your local climate. Native species naturally thrive in your local climate and will therefore respond to give the best results; other species will develop well but can take longer to establish in the ground before growing with real vigour.

Any age or size of tree is suitable for field growing as long as it is well developed enough to compete with any grasses or weeds that might compete for light or moisture. Generally, cuttings, seedlings or saplings should be at least 2 years old before planting out unless you are able to cosset them for the first year.

For more go to Field Growing Trees For Bonsai

In our last field growing post we mention planting directly into native soil without digging in amendments when you plant. A friend of my points out that she has no native soil; her house and yard were built on fill. In our usage of native soil, we mean whatever soil is already there; in other words, my friend’s fill would be her native soil.

What if your native soil isn’t very good? Too acidic, too alkaline, too something or not enough something else? And how do you know if your native soil is good enough to simply plant as is?

The simple answer is, just look and see what’s growing there. If relatively vigorous plants are already growing in your native soil, then it should be okay for field growing. If not, you might want to consider building raised beds (or hills) with enriched soil.

In my case, even though the soil around my house is quite sandy, plenty of trees and other plants were growing just fine when I moved in five years ago.  So my lazy person’s method of enriching by top dressing and fertilizing after I plant, has worked quite well.

In some cases, I just plant directly into the ground (this works because the drainage is excellent). In others I build little 1 t0 3 foot mountain ranges, using both soil from around my land and some fill from outside (also quite sandy) and incorporate bonsai stock into my landscaping.

Before planting I top prune (always top prune when you disturb the roots, especially if you rootprune) and rootprune if needed, and spread the roots and dip them in Roots, a rooting compound in solution, and then plant.

Next, I top dress with partially broken down cedar mulch about two inches deep. I used partially broken down cedar because wood robs nitrogen in the early stages of breaking down and then gives it back to the soil in the final stages of breaking down.

Then, because the plants need help at first and because my soil is very sandy, I top water very regularly (unless it rains). Deep enough for the water to soak well below the roots.

After about a week I start sprinkling mild organic fertilizer granules around each plant, out to about six inches beyond the drip line (this encourages the roots to grow out instead of down). I do this about every two or three weeks until late summer.

Three or four times a season I sprinkle on a diluted mix of fish/seaweed and Dyna-gro 7-9-5.  If you have a long growing season (we don’t) then you can do this more than just 3 or 4 times.

In the late summer and early fall it’s important to reduce the amount of nitrogen so energy is directed to the roots and nutrient storage and away from top growth, so I use a more highly diluted mix of fish/seaweed and instead of Dyna-gro 7-9-5, I switch to 3-12-6.

If you have any question or objections, or just want to share your field growing techniques, don’t hesitate to comment.

In Field Growing 2 I said I just dug a hole and planted. Actually, that isn’t the whole story; when you field grow bonsai stock, you need to cut off the downward growing roots and spread the lateral roots. This encourages lateral top growth (above ground growth) and nebari development (check the top photo in Field Growing 2).

Some people put a board, or tile, or some other flat object a few inches under the roots to inhibit downward root growth and encourage lateral growth. Others, like me, just dig their plants up every couple years and prune and spread the roots each time.

The disadvantage to too much digging and rootpruning, is that it sets back growth for awhile, so the plants develops more slowly. The advantage is; you can do some top pruning when you have them out of the ground.

Though not everyone would agree with this approach (they might say something like; just let them grow and do the refining later when they are in containers), I like it because I get to know my trees better and enjoy having partially styled future bonsai in my landscaping. I also like it because I’m impatient and can’t wait to get started shaping. I even have some in the ground with wire (got to watch it because in-ground stuff grows fast) and even some with branch benders hanging on them (I’ll have some photos for you when the snow melts).

Note: in Field Growing 2 I used the term native soil. What I meant was just whatever soil is already there, not necessarily the soil that was there before any humans came along and altered it. In most areas where people live all kinds of things may have been done to the soil over the years that alter it’s original composition.

Check out our previous posts on field growing: Have You Thought About Field Growing? and Field Growing 2: Native Soil